Lodi vintner to be recognized for Amgen Tour of California efforts
For the past two years, Lodi has hosted the Amgen Tour of California cycling race, an event that has brought worldwide exposure and provided a tourism and economic boost to the city.
Playing host in back-to-back years was due in large part to the efforts of local vintner Bob Colarossi, and for that he has been selected as a 2016 recipient of the Mayor’s Community Service Award.
“Bob Colarossi brought the Tour of California to Lodi and that has huge implications to our tourism development,” Mayor Mark Chandler said. “He volunteered thousands of hours to head up the committee, raise the money, organize the event and get the volunteers. We had 400 volunteers. It was just an immense amount of work, and he very much deserves this recognition.”
The Tour of California is a Tour de France-style cycling road race that challenges the world’s top professional cycling teams to compete along a demanding course that traverses hundreds of miles of California’s iconic highways, byways and coastlines each spring. The teams chosen to participate have included Olympic medalists, Tour de France contenders and world champions. Colarossi said the tour generates over 4 billion media impressions a year.
“I felt it would be a good thing for the community and a nice way to showcase Lodi to the rest of the world,” he said.
Colarossi never expected be recognized for his efforts, saying that he just wanted to see Lodi flourish. He added that he wouldn’t have been able to bring the tour to Lodi on his own and credited everyone who contributed to the effort.
“I chaired the group, and we had a really solid group of individuals who all dedicated and volunteered all of their time. None of us were paid, we all just did it for the betterment of Lodi,” said Colarossi, who is currently working on trying to bring the tour back for 2018.
“If geographically we fit into their plan for 2018, then we’d like to bring it back to Lodi again. The community really embraced it and thought it was a good event,” Colarossi said.
As the owner of Estate Crush, a winery and tasting room located in Downtown Lodi, Colarossi said it’s important to be supportive and helpful to the community and that’s why he put so much effort into bringing the tour to Lodi.
Colarossi will be presented with his award during the Lodi City Council meeting set for Wednesday.